This photo, circa 1900, shows some classic farm cats. The young woman has an apron on over her everyday work dress – it’s just the place for a kitten to be.
These cats are likely being fed milk. If they’re lucky, there might be meat scraps, too. Those cats had a job to do. Not only did they keep rats out of the barns, but they also kept the family’s food safe from vermin. Cooked food and baked goods were stored in a pantry. They didn’t have seal-tight plastic containers and refrigerators. (Remember the scene in Anne of Green Gables when a mouse falls into the dessert?) Keeping the mice out of the house was very important work. The cats in this photo look up to the task!
They do look up to the task. I’m sure that they are enjoying their milk treat and a warm lap. My two are too well fed to be great mousers but they’ve adopted a feral to keep our mouse population down. Thank you for the cute cat picture. Now I want to watch Anne of Green Gables again. :-)
My two year old crazy cat alerted me to a problem a week and a half ago by being very interested in a pile of stuff in my laundry room. I could hear something jumping around and when I moved a few things I saw fur where I was expecting a tree frog or lizard. Called the sheriff’s office (they dispatch animal control officers). A deputy finally showed up (9 PM on a Saturday night) and was able to grab the squirrel and toss it out the door. Miss Effie explores that corner of the laundry room every so often probably hoping the critter will be there again! Never a dull moment!!
When I was a teenager, I had a cat who’d bring live and unharmed chipmunks into the house through her pop door. Once there were two chipmunks and a crazy cat all racing around the house!
I had a cat years ago who brought me live gifts from the outside. I kept the kitchen window open over the sink. She brought the usual chipmunks, a baby robin made the trip inside several times, but when she brought in the snake, I said enough already. I closed the kitchen window and when she came in through the door, I frisked her!
When I had indoor/outdoor cats they hunted regularly and left me presents out on the steps but now my cats are strictly indoor cats. I think the squirrel tore a hole in the screen on the kitchen window and got in that way. It was in the house more than 24 hours when I discovered it. I had patched the screen the evening before but had no idea at that time that a squirrel had gotten in.
When I had a greenhouse at my last house in Mass. there were a few snakes there. The greenhouse had been built over their nesting spot. One evening my Abyssinian cat wanted to come in from his sojourn in the greenhouse and he brought a Ringneck Snake with him, drooping from his jaws like it was dead. It wasn’t! I checked him out religiously after that before I opened the door.